


Wolf Edda

by sleepyclementine



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Arlathan, Elvhen Lore, Elvhen Pantheon, Elvhenan, Elvhenan Culture and Customs, F/F, Gen, M/M, Multi, Pre-Arlathan, lyrical
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-13 21:03:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16025936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepyclementine/pseuds/sleepyclementine
Summary: Before he was the Dread Wolf, he was the Proud.A collection of legends revolving around Fen'Solas/Fen'Harel, without chronology. In the form of folklore and oral traditions.As with all legends, truth is a thing unknown.





	1. Fen'Solas and the First Light

Before the memory of the People, when only the gods walked besides the spirits, Fen’Solas marveled at the light of the All-Father. He asked Elgar’nan for the weight of the sun, so that he might enjoy its radiance. But Elgar’nan knew that his heart was full of pride, and that he would make waste of this gift in his arrogance and carelessness. Fen’Solas was much aggrieved, and slunk back to his realm to ponder.

Ages passed before time, and Fen’Solas stood again before the resplendent throne of the All-Father, offering oblations and glittering words that shimmered with magic as they spilled from his lips. Elgar’nan was much taken by the display, and Fen’Solas asked for but a sliver of the sun, so that it might guide his way through lightless paths. Angered, Elgar’nan cast the Proud Wolf from the audience he had granted, and once more Fen’Solas returned to his lair in discontented contemplation. 

Ages passed before time, and Fen’Solas was absent before the throne of the All-Father. Yet Elgar’nan did not lack for benefactions. Among his offerings was a gift unmatched to any that had come before, a beautiful token with a chain of unbreakable golden thread. Elgar’nan favored it and held it above all others, sensing the quintessence of Mythal in its delicate links. When he willed the sun to slumber and brought the closing of the day, he slept with her token about his neck. But, unknowing, the All-Father’s treasure stole a single beam of light from the rays of the sun, and the threads unraveled in his long rest. 

Upon waking, he perceived the ruination of his favored token, and cast it aside with great contempt, understanding it at last to be a prank by Fen’Solas. He called the Wolf before him to pay his dues in righteous vengeance. Fen’Solas obeyed the All-Father’s summons, for even he who walks the lonely paths knows there is no realm Elgar’nan’s light cannot reach. In his punishment, Fen’Solas was forced to bear the weight of his trickery, and hang the broken token about his neck like a millstone, so that all the gods might know his crime.

But Fen’Solas laughed and capered at his punishment, for this false tribute had been forged by his will in secret: he had invited willing spirits into the weave of the token’s thread, and made homage to the Great Protector, who cast all before her presence in the glorified justice of her quintessence. Thus disguised, he had slipped the token into the palanquin of Mythal’s gifts, and whispered to the spirits of his plans. When Elgar’nan retired the day with the token draped over his divine form, the spirits, loyal to Fen’Solas, fled the binding of the golden thread. So unfurled upon waking, Elgar’nan understood the trick for what it was - but Fen’Solas knew more still.

Fen’Solas did not protest the weight of the token about his neck, and bore it in equal time for the length of its forging. Thus satisfied, Elgar’nan soon forgot Fen’Solas’ foolish trick, and turned his eyes once more to the heavens and the creation of the world and the First People. But Fen’Solas knew that he at last had stolen a ray of Elgar’nan’s own sun, and unleashed it upon the First People as both boon and rabid beast to harry their steps. Elgar’nan’s flame took life from those who perished before its hunger, and offered life for those clever enough to harness its ways.

And that is how the Proud Wolf brought fire to the world.


	2. Fen'Harel and the Aegis of Elgar'nan

In the Great Unrest, a noble in service to Elgar’nan heard of sedition among her household. Unwilling to abide such stirrings, she struck down her servants in a rage, vowing that the corruption of their thoughts could be corrected only in the Beyond. Word of her deeds spread, sowing fear in the retainers of noble houses throughout all Arlathan. 

She walked the bloodied grounds of her manor as master, pride stiffening her spine. Her courtyard soon regained its luster, for new slaves feared the fates of the last, and could not but shine the gleaming columns and the glittering pool. The noble turned to sleep in satisfaction, for through her hand, she wielded the vengeance of the All-Father, and in his honor she kept the peace of her domain. But her dreams were received in foul temper by the Dread Wolf, who saw not retribution in the wrath of her killing magics, but a disease rotting the heart of the Golden City. He harried her steps in the Dreaming, the punishing red of his hungry maw looming hungry and nearer each night.

The noble began to live in terror of his coming, and consulted her kin on the nature of her nightmares, each more real and terrible than the last. They prayed to Elgar’nan for the glare of his shield, that it might confuse the Wolf and turn his hunting steps aside. The noble and her kin cloistered in the sun-drenched walls of her demense, secure in the safety of her home at the heart of Elgar’nan’s realm. Though her dreams yet troubled her, the threat of the Dread Wolf seemed lesser for the security of her manor and her god, and she praised the First of the Sun for extending his divine aegis. That her son now complained of the Dread Wolf in his dreams seemed a laughable thing: Elgar’nan had already proven his might, and kept the harellan at bay. She boasted in the noble houses of Arlathan, for the Dread Wolf could not breach the protection of the Highest One. 

In dreams, the Dread Wolf’s leering jaws snapped and ground ever closer, but the noble did not heed the image of grim reckoning, and took peace in the favor of her god, for omens were the realm of Falon’Din, and this was not but an echo of frustration from a realm far distant.

She grew arrogant, surer in her path for every night that the wolf drew closer and did no harm. Though her son trembled, she urged him not to fear, and slipped into his dreams to give of him her strength. This night, as every night, the Dread Wolf approached, nearer now than he had ever been. In the Beyond, his visage was terrible to behold, and even the noble quailed in the horror of his presence. But though the Wolf was near enough at last to leap for them, he stayed his crushing jaw, unmoving in the dreaming echo of her courtyard. Elgar’nan’s light rose to its zenith in the Beyond, and she knew it kept the Dread Wolf at bay. She laughed as he padded through the colonnade, and laughed again as he dipped his maw to the pool, for he could not touch them, and she called him in his powerlessness.

But the Dread Wolf did not abide her insults, and nosed his snout at the reflections cast by Elgar’nan’s gift.

Later, it was said by her get that he remembered only when the Dread Wolf lifted his head once more on the other side with the form of something elvhen in the trap of his teeth, that her laughter died in her throat and her body crumpled. The household awoke to find their lady murdered in her bed, the sheets unstained with the blood that so soiled her hands for her cruelty.

For Fen’Harel, he from whom no ill-deeds can be hidden, had judged her for her crimes, and claimed her soul from her body.


End file.
